


A KING'S SECOND CHANCE

by SkipBack



Series: Zimvoid King AU [2]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: enjoy the story anyhow, give the roach child love, i guess the robotic backpack only has one line in here, idk - Freeform, it's that sequel to king of a barren world no one asked for, just a lot of stuff idk how to explain, more weirdly wholesome but, oh well, read if you're a fan of this weird universe i'm creating now, return of the bug boy and the robotic backpack, there's not a lot of angst in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:41:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24226006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkipBack/pseuds/SkipBack
Summary: It's been God knows how long. It's time that things in the "Zimvoid" changes once and for all.The sequel toKing of a Barren Worldno one asked for.
Series: Zimvoid King AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748608
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	A KING'S SECOND CHANCE

Nothing made sense. All to be expected in a place where reality has been destroyed. 

There was no time, yet his body changed as though it still existed. There were no trees, yet a sour wind gently tugged and played with his hair. No food, yet there was still a deep hunger within him. It didn't help that when he had grown, that hunger grew deeper, cutting through like a sharp dagger, twisting and slicing his insides. Or something deep and meaningful like that. 

He'd changed a lot, and not for the better. His cheek bones had grown sharper, his stomach caved in and his ribs painfully obvious. His hair was longer and shaggier (and had a lot of dried grease in it that made his head itch for days on end). His glasses had finally fallen a part, no longer able to stay in one piece after he'd thrown himself off of his castle and landed on his face seemingly thousands of years ago, causing him to realize he hadn't needed those glasses in the first place; having a PAK fused to the back of his head had made his vision better than ever, which made him feel... very stupid to find out this way. 

This all didn't compare to the fact he smelled like hot garbage covered in fire. He smelled awful and he hated it _so much_. Sure, he didn't have a human nose anymore... _but he could still smell it and it was driving him insane_. 

So being called "stinkbug" was starting to sting. 

_"Hey, stinkbug... do you hear that?"_ Zim abruptly asked. 

Zib frowned, pausing to listen. Faintly, he could hear distant whirring... odd. He was pretty sure he'd never heard _that_ here before. Where... _waitaminute—_

Before Zib could really process what was happening, a sudden invisible force knocked him over onto his back. Zim protested when Zib bonked him against the ground, but Zib didn't have the energy to get back up, and his eyes slid shut. By God, when was the last time he even slept...? 

He didn't need his eyes open to feel that something ripped through the fabric of whatever was left of his reality. Something took two steps, and what he heard next would have made him laugh... if it had come from a voice he didn't recognize (also, he felt too terrible to laugh anyhow). 

"Oh... did he die?" 

The voice grew closer, and he suspected that the speaker had crouched. "That kind of destroys my whole plan... dang," the voice went on. " _Geez_ , that smell _reeks_. How long has he been dead for?" 

Zib forced one of his eyes open. The owner of the voice wasn't paying attention to him. "I wonder what even _happened_... he doesn't seemed to have died recently, but he's still _OH GOD HE'S ALIVE HUHHH!_ " 

Dib toppled over, falling into a sitting position, protectively raising an arm. Zib grunted as he forced himself upright, sure he was glaring into the eyes of the other boy... the other _him_. 

Awkward silence, only filled by the sounds of the blue portal whirring behind the other Dib. 

It wasn't that either of them had nothing to say. They were technically the same person, so Zib knew it was just that they had no idea where to even start. Dib looked better than Zib felt, ten times more better. Healthier. Well-fed. He wasn't sure he approved of the little black earring in the other Dib's left ear, but it wasn't worth mentioning. 

He looked older than the last time they met. 

"...hey," Dib tried, softly. 

"...hi." Zib tried saying it just as softly, but anger had bubbled in his thin stomach, so it came out a little louder and a tad harsher than he meant for it to. If the other noticed, he didn't mention it. 

"So, um... how are you?" Pitifully trying to start a conversation. 

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," Zib said. "My head is unbelievably itchy, everything hurts, I smell like a Dumpster caught on fire, and this is what my stomach looks like." Dib cringed when Zib pulled up his shirt to... demonstrate? Prove his point?? 

He let go of the shirt, folding his bony hands together. "So yeah, I feel awful. How are _yooooooooouuuuuu?_ " A painful, crooked smile crossed his features, and he was sure it made him look unhinged. 

"Um... good?" Dib said. 

"You don't sound so sure about that," Zib noted. 

"I'm not sure what to say," Dib told him. "You probably hate me—" 

"I want to boil your insides in a vat of lava," Zib said, almost as though to prove the other's point. 

"—and I get that," Dib went on, clearly unnerved by that statement. "But I kind of feel bad for leaving you here, all by yourself." 

"So your plan is... what, exactly? Are you here to rub it in my face or something?" 

Dib stood up, and held out a hand. "Come with me," he said. "I wanted to give you second chance at a normal life. It's not that fair for us to take the rest of what you had. To leave you alone, and to leave you with practically nothing. So take my hand, and I'll take you back to my timeline. Things can be different for you this time around." 

"Hm," Zib said. "Nice speech. How many times did you practice it?" 

"I kinda just came up with it on the spot," Dib admitted, a gentle red rising to his pale cheeks ( _unngggh_ , why was his brain like this? Couldn't he just say something like "faintly blushing" instead of whatever poetic dookie _that_ was?). 

"Of course you did." Zib clenched and unclenched a fist, uncertain. There was only two options here — go with Dib, leave the remnants of his reality, and live in another undestroyed world. Or — the option if he refused — he could stay here and live with knowing that he'd had a chance to leave, to get out of the barren world he accidentally created, living until he became a shrivelled stick that barely keep his head up due to the weight of the PAK on the back of it, causing his neck to snap and his head to come off (it probably wouldn't happen, but he was visualizing it right now, hello). 

One of these options sounded more appealing than the other. 

With a sigh, Zib slipped a bony hand into Dib's. Dib helped him to his feet, taking a step away from him. "Uh... quick question — how old are we now?" Zib asked Dib. 

"...sixteen?" Dib leaned away as though he was expecting Zib to react poorly to the response. 

Zib felt like ice had been shoved down the back of his shirt. " _Four years,_ " he said, his mind going blank. 

Dib lead Zib through the blue portal. He snapped out it as it closed behind them. In his time alone, he'd only had the sound of his own voice and the voice of the Zim in his PAK (who he eventually realized could only speak in his head for some reason; no one else could hear him, but he just knew that the voice was actually real). Whenever either of them stopped talking, there was... nothing. Sure, there was the faint sound of the sour wind that Zib had slowly tuned out, but there was practically no other sounds. The silence was deafening, after what he'd been used to hearing. 

Zib had hated the silence with ever fiber of his being. 

He'd taken advantage of his hearing; he heard buzzing somewhere screaming in his ear, the distant sounds of the city through the walls of the room. It was almost deafening, and his mind went into a sound-induced daze, something he hadn't realized was possible until now. Maybe it was just that his senses had been heightened; it would explain why he was able to hear and smell and even _see_ the world with such clarity. Though that was actually bad in one way; he still smelled pretty awful, and he was itching to bathe. 

The first hours went by in a incoherent blur. Zib was just overwhelmed by _everything_ ; it was like he was experiencing everything for the first time again. It was new and familiar at the same time. He hadn't realized it before, but there was just... there was something that felt _good_ about showering. It was like washing off every experience you ever had, and starting anew all over again. It really... it really fit his situation. Plus, he didn't smell bad anymore and, so that's really good (Zim had been worried about it at first, since neither of them really knew if water was like acid for Zib now; it just stung a tiny bit, but he lived). 

Though he wanted to do so much, his body could only handle so much at once. Before long, Zib had passed out on the couch. 

... 

"Son... you want to explain this to me again?" 

Dib sighed, smoothing a hand through his hair. "It's a _long_ story," he told his dad. "It's just... I don't want to get into it, but this guy, right? He's a version of me from another timeline. He... he kind of lost it, built some kind of alien zapper, then destroyed everyone and everything else in the universe. Accidentally. He was going to do it to a bunch of other timelines, but long story short, I kind felt bad for what happened to him in the end, so he's here now." 

Professor Membrane said nothing, keeping his arms crossed. He slightly turned his head in Zib's direction, and Dib could only assume his father was glancing over at the other Dib on the couch. Zib's eyelids twitched in his sleep, his brows furrowed, and he mumbled something about not wanting to be alone. 

"So, he's staying, then?" the professor eventually asked Dib, raising a brow, probably trying to piece the situation in his own mind. 

"Yeah... I guess so," Dib replied. 

"I guess that means I have two stupid brothers now," Gaz said from her spot in the doorway to the kitchen. Dib hadn't even realized she was here until now. 

Well, when she put it that way... Dib guessed that meant he had a brother now. A brother who was basically himself, though different in more ways than he cared to count. He wasn't sure if Zib would ever plot anything against him, didn't know what the other Dib would do. So he had a dangerous twin, if he was putting it that way. 

Professor Membrane probably wouldn't voice his concerns, but Dib suspected that he was probably worried about having two sons that were almost exactly the same. Even if Zib did have some Zim-like traits, he was still technically a Dib. Though what he was like now, since he'd beenstuck in the "Zimvoid" for four years all by himself with no one to talk to. He'd seemed fine when they started talking, but once the conversation really got going, Zib had seemed rather... bonkers. The smile he'd given Dib hadn't really helped him stray away from this idea. 

So really, what was Zib capable of? And what would he plan? What would he do next? 

There was a lot of ordinary problems that popped up as well — where would he even sleep, would they have to send him to school, other nonsense they'd have to deal with when they came down to it. Dib didn't really like the idea of Zib sleeping in his room (their room?). The idea of having someone who was probably planning to kill him in his sleep camp out on his floor didn't sit well with him. 

Really, Dib hadn't thought his plan through when he'd wanted to bring Zib to his timeline. Who knew what crazy revenge plan Zib was probably planning? Maybe he didn't have one, but still. Zib was clearly not happy about what had happened to him. 

But still, Zib was here now. And unless something went horribly wrong, he was here to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Though I didn't expect to make a sequel to my first story about Zib so soon (or it to be shorter than the first one), I still had fun writing him. Though Professor Membrane is actually rather hard to write. But about my "Zimvoid King ARC"...
> 
> Will it ever have a real storyline behind it? 
> 
> I don't know yet, but _King of a Barren World_ and _A King's Second Chance_ are all "what if" scenarios I came up with (when I should be sleeping) that I wanted to write about. Even though this is called the Zimvoid King _ARC_ , it's not a real arc; I just thought the name had a nice ring to it.
> 
> If people are reading these ZKA stories, I don't know, but thank you if you are. I have no idea where ZKA is even going. I don't know where it'll even go, should I continue. I'm going to figure that out in due time.
> 
> "Well, that's enough of that! We've got a lot of work to do."


End file.
